Embodiments of the disclosure relate generally to data processing, and more particularly to methods and systems for automatically processing coupons in retail stores.
Coupons issued by vendors, manufacturers, retailers and others are often used by customers to save money by reducing the price paid for certain products and/or services at the point of sale. For example, when checking out, the customer may present a coupon to the retailer for one or more of the products being purchased. The retailer then reduces the receipt total by the redemption value of the coupon, provided that the coupon has not expired and any other conditions associated with redeeming the coupon have been met. If the coupon is issued by an entity other than the retailer itself, the retailer can recover the redemption value from the issuer of the coupon, often using a clearing house to perform this service. For example, the retailer may send the redeemed coupon to the clearing house, which in turn pays the retailer the redemption amount and separately recovers the payment from the issuer of the coupon.
Coupons are most commonly issued in paper form, and are manually handled and processed by the retailer at the point of sale, as well as in a back office, for verification, accounting, auditing and other purposes. For example, some paper coupons may need to be visually verified and/or manually keyed in by a store clerk, tasks that are not always done consistently or reliably. In addition to verifying expiration dates and redemption conditions, some retailers are also vigilant in identifying fraudulent or counterfeit coupons at the point of sale, because if a coupon is discovered to be fraudulent or counterfeit after the sales transaction is complete, the retailer may have no recourse against the customer. Also, paper coupons may be manually sorted, counted, verified and/or keyed into an accounting register in the back office, which can introduce errors, discrepancies, and other inefficiencies. Since some large retailers may process thousands or tens of thousands of paper coupons per day, processing inefficiencies can be compounded by the volume.